Intermittent issue when printing images in HTML-format e-mails

[Ken Ward]

Two of my users sometimes get HTML format e-mails from
suppliers/subcontractors which include embedded screendump images, pasted in
from the clipboard after pressing PrtSc key.

Sometimes the images print fine, other times all the user gets on the page
is the e-mail header (to, from, date, subject, etc.) and a large box with a
red 'x' in it. The same mail sent to the same printer several times will
print correctly several times but also not print several times! There seems
to be no logic to this problem!

The user is using Windows XP SP2 (fully patched) and Office 2003 (again,
fully patched and SP'ed).

Anyone seen this problem before?

Any help much appreciated!

Thanks a lot,

Ken Ward,
I.T. Support Officer
ECM (Vehicle Delivery Service) Ltd.,
UK.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

First try updating the print drivers.
Delete the IE cache.
Some older combinations of IE could cause this. Consider updating IE.

 

[Ken Ward]

No, no difference at all. Downloaded the latest driver from HP and installed
it, and deleted contents of users cache, history, cookies etc. But no joy,
embedded graphics in mails still intermittently print as "x" in a large
square.

The user is on the latest version of IE7, so it shouldn't (!) be the web
browser.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Thanks,

Ken.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Are the images that don't print web based?

 

[Ken Ward]

No, they're embedded in the mail. They're screenshots (generated by pressing
PrtSc) which have been pasted into the mail.

I've tried getting the user to print to another printer, and the same happens.

On a hunch I've tried manually deleting the users 'OLK' folder within their
local profile, to see if that helps.

What I can't understand is how the image displays okay *every time*, but
*intermittently* won't print.

Ken.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

There's an OutlPrnt.dat file that is usually deleted for other Outlook
printing issues. Delete it and see if it helps with this.

 

[Ken Ward]

Sorry, the user doesn't have an OutlPrnt.dat file and neither do I.

I suspect (but am willing to be proved wrong) from looking at the MS KB
articles this is used by an older version of Outlook; we're using Outlook
2003 as part of Office 2003.

Ken.
I.T. Support Officer
ECM (Vehicle Delivery Service) Ltd.,
UK.

 

[pvazny]

Ken,

Have you ever been able to resolve this? We are experiencing exactly
same problem. In addition to that the font size and the image size are
not consistent. Sometime it prints with small font and full image and
sometime it crops the image and prints with standard size font.

Peter

 

[Ken Ward]

Peter,

No, I'm afraid we haven't. As it's a completely intermittent thing (print ,
and doesn't seem to be related to printing to any particular printer, I can
only assume it's a bug / feature in Outlook which MS haven't resolved yet.
Although I can't find any mention of it on the MS Knowledge Base or support
site. I think we're just going to have to live with the problem to be
honest, not very satisfactory.

Can't say I've come across your font size / image cropping issue before.
Sounds like the browser could be resizing your output. If you're using IE7,
maybe try it on a different PC with a different version of the browser?

Sorry I can't be of much more help. Maybe someone else reading this can
suggest something...?

Ken.

 

[Mad King Soup]

I've got exactly the same problem, but only since installing SP3.

It happens even in emails that I have created are are in my Sent Items folder.

I don't have any outlprnt.dat file on my machine and the images concerned
are there on the screen but not on the printed paper - all I get is the
"missing image" box with a red X in the top left corner, and they are not on
the internet.

I just tested sending an email to my Gmail address. The images arrived
inline and printed fine, but the original email in my Outlook Sent Items
folder loks OK on thre screen, but they just don't print.

Any help would be appreciated.
Soupie

 

[Chip]

We are having the same issue as well it's been happening for a good 3 weeks
now, up until that time it worked perfectly fine. Is it an update issue? We
have Auto updates so not sure if I can pinpoint exact date or time it's
started.

Chip

 

[Tom King]

Ww seem to have a common thread developing.... I too suffer from the same
problem. Since an auto update two or three weeks ago, I cannot print emails.
Everything else works with the printer but if I call for a print of the
actual email, I don't even get the printer select window.
It seems to have affected previous emails at random..... some will print,
some will not. Whats Happening???

 

[Eva SK]

I am here looking for answers for exactly the same problem.
I can print images (jpegs put into the signature) sometimes in Outlook and
always in yahoo mail, incidently using the same printer. This is definately
an Outlook issue. I tried all tricks in this thread to no avail. It looks
desperately unprofessional to have e-mails with non-printing images.

Eva

 

[Chrisby]

Did you ever get a solution to this ?
I, like the others, have the same issue.
Interestingly, I came across this before in Office 2000; SP3 fixed it, but
added in a host of other problems! Ended up reinstalling office, to SP2,
then resorting to copy/paste into Word to print.
Quite shocked to see it reappear.